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By Adam SatarianoBloomberg News • Monday June 9, 2014 1:01 AM

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple’s pitch to developers at its annual conference a week ago shows how
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is ramping up efforts to keep programmers from
switching loyalties.

With Google trying to lure coders and designers to create more for its Android mobile software,
Apple used its event to introduce new features to keep them in the fold. The iPhone maker showed
improved methods for customers to find apps to download, a new programming language to create apps
more quickly and tools so the programs can work seamlessly together.

The announcements represent Apple’s most comprehensive set of enhancements for developers since
the company’s App Store made its debut nearly six years ago. For much of that period, the world’s
most-valuable company had a near lock on programmers as iPhones and iPads proliferated, giving
developers a vast audience who could download their games and widgets.

“Apple is going the extra mile” to maintain developer loyalty, said Carolina Milanesi, who
studies the mobile industry as research chief at Kantar Worldwide. She said the message Apple is
sending is, “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

A healthy apps ecosystem is crucial for Apple, with mobile programs including productivity tools
and games such as Candy Crush helping to drive consumer interest in its devices. Spurred by such
App Store downloads, people keep coming back to buy the latest iPhones and iPads, which generate
more than 72 percent of Apple’s annual $171 billion in revenue.

Having developers on a company’s side has long been a competitive advantage in the technology
industry. Microsoft discovered that in the 1980s and 1990s when many programmers created for
Windows and shunned Apple’s Macintosh operating system for personal computers. Microsoft has since
seen the flip side, with fewer developers making apps for its Windows Phone software. That has left
Windows Phone-based hardware trailing Apple’s mobile devices and Google Android gadgets.

Apple is working to make it clear it isn’t taking developers for granted. The company started
its event last week in San Francisco with a video praising the crowd of 6,000 developers, who
cheered wildly at nearly every new feature showed by Apple executives.

“From all of Apple, thank you very much,” Cook said during his talk. The announcements are meant
to help build apps on a “whole new level,” he said.

Competition for developers in the $23 billion apps industry has intensified as more companies
strive to grab a piece of the mobile market. Google, which is holding its own developer conference
in San Francisco this month, has overhauled its Google Play apps store to make it more customer
friendly and added tools to simplify the production of apps for Android devices. Facebook also
introduced its own set of software tools last month so makers of mobile apps would use its servers
as a foundation for producing its programs.

The threat is clear for Apple. As of the end of last year, Android’s worldwide market share was
78 percent, up from 66 percent in 2012, according to researcher Gartner. Apple’s mobile software,
iOS, had a 16 percent share last year, down from 19 percent in 2012.

The market shifts were enough to push startup WhoDoYou to begin its service on Android instead
of the iPhone platform. The business-recommendation service, which competes against Yelp Inc. and
Angie’s List Inc., debuted this year.

“We track the percentage of mobile users very carefully and have found that Android is growing
more quickly than iPhone,” CEO Yoav Schwartz wrote in an email. “Our iPhone app will be coming out
soon, so it’s not a very strategic decision, but we thought it made sense for us to start on
Android first.”